Border trade needs greater scrutiny

 BATAS market, on the Papua New Guinea-Indonesia border outside of Vanimo town in West Sepik, is a trading hub for people from both sides of the border.

The market attracts people from the Momase and Highlands provinces who go there in search of cheap Indonesian and Asian products.

It can be said that households and small business in those provinces are better off now because of the opportunity provided by this trading post.

Confrontations between the OPM militants and Indonesian soldiers early this year, which involved PNG Defence Force soldiers, forced the temporary closure of Batas market.

The closure did not deter Papua New Guineans from near and far from going after an easy source of trade items.

It is understood more than 1000 shoppers from PNG go to Batas market twice a week and spend more than K5000 per day to buy goods in bulk to be taken to their respective provinces be resold at retail prices. 

“Shoppers, especially bu­siness people, come from Momase and even as far as the Highlands region to Batas. They even bypass Batas and go as far as Jayapura to buy goods there,” a source told The National yesterday. 

The people had seen the advantages of such trade and will take any risk with the help of locals who own boats that ply the waters between Vanimo and Jayapura. In doing so, they not only violate customs and quarantine laws of both countries.  

Papua New Guinea faces the greater threat of having illegal items or even life threatening diseases from across the country.

For example, for some time now, the National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA), in partnership with other agencies, has been engaged in an on-going battle against the bird flu diseases.

The free, undetected mo­vement of people across the border makes its efforts to control or eliminate bird flu disease a lot more difficult than what they have already have to deal with.

Likewise, the entry of foreign products like food, liquor, medicines pose health and safety risks for people who take them.

It is a known fact that dangerous firearms have entered the country’s porous border without detection.

According to recent reports from West Sepik provincial police commander Robert Gesa, people travel by sea to Jayapura to buy these goods 

Gesa raised concern over the movement of people into and out of Jayapura without detection or being checked by relevant government authorities, including police.

He pointed out the risks such movement and trade posed to those involved and the rest of the country.

Furthermore, police, customs and quarantine officials have little or no knowledge of what people are bringing into PNG from across the border.

It appears that people have defied police warnings against border crossings be­cause of the tensions between the Indonesian military and Papuan militants. 

The lack of resources available to police to properly monitor cross-border movement and trade has once been raised by the provincial police commander.

The oft-repeated plea to adequately resource officers of Royal PNG Constabulary, PNG Customs and NAQIA at our border provinces sounds already like playing a scratched record.

Controlling and stopping people from travelling across the border for trade reasons will not work and could negatively impact businesses in West and East Sepik provinces.

What is required though is for people travelling between Vanimo and Jayapura to cooperate with government officials to operate within the country’s laws and continue in business.

Risks associated with dealing with illegal goods, some labelled only in foreign languages, are real and a recent directive from Independent Consumer and Competition Commission to remove all such items from shop shelves is welcome.  

Meanwhile, Treasury Minister and Aitape-Lumi MP Patrick Pruaitch has raised another concern about Batas market, saying it is benefitting Indonesians more than our citizens. 

“Our currency (kina) is getting stuck up there and it’s not making its way back into the country.  We need to make sure so that mechanism is put in place for us to benefit from this trade between both countries,” Pruaitch told PNG Customs officers yesterday.